Attributed to Anthonis Mor Utrecht 1516/20 - 1576? Antwerp

The likeness of the sitter compared to other identified portraits of Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517-1586) confirms that the figure represented is indeed Granvelle: compare, in particular, the engraving by Lambert Suavius de Zutman (circa 1510-1574/76) and the portrait head by Scipione Pulzone in the Courtauld Insitute of Art, London (see P. Curie, "Quelques portraits du Cardinal de Granvelle", in "Les Granvelle et l'Italie au XVIe siècle: le mecénat d'une famille", Actes du Colloque International organisé par la Section d'Italien de l'Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, October 2-4, 1992, Besançon 1996, pp. 159-175, figs. 4 and 13 respectively). The pose, age, and dress of the sitter in the engraving are extremely close to those in the present painting, and it is therefore likely that they date from around the same time and were probably conceived in the same artistic circle. Suavius was a pupil of the painter Lambert Lombard, in whose studio he worked alongside Willem Key and Frans Floris, and his engraving may derive from a documented portrait of Granvelle from the late 1540s by a certain "maistre Crispian" (possibly Crispijn van den Broeck). A painted portrait of Granvelle by Titian (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; reproduced in colour in Renaissance Venice and the North, exhibition catalogue, Venice, Palazzo Grassi, 1999, pp. 548-9, cat. no. 164), dated by critics to 1548, also has much in common with the present work, as does another painted portrait by Anthonis Mor of a year later (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; reproduced in Die Gemäldegalerie des Kunsthistorisches Museums in Wien, Vienna 1991, plate 324). The former was almost certainly commissioned by Granvelle in Augsburg, where Titian travelled to with Lambert Sustris (to whom the Kansas portrait has sometimes been attributed). The book which Granvelle holds in Titian's portrait, apparently one and the same as that held by him in the present painting, has a Venetian binding thereby suggesting that it may be one of the volumes Granvelle is known to have commissioned or acquired in Venice (some are today held in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Brussels). Mor's painting in Vienna, which is signed and dated 1549, adopts a three-quarter length format similar to that used by Titian though the figure is turned in a pose closer still to that of Granvelle in the present canvas. The inclusion of the clock (apparently of German origin) in all three paintings may be a symbol alluding to the importance of time, measure and prudence in Granvelle's role of ecclesiastic and political advisor.

At the time the present portrait was painted, Granvelle would have been about thirty years old. The painting must have sat for almost a decade after he was made Bishop of Arras (he was appointed in 1538), and some years after he was charged with addressing the Council of Trent (January 9, 1543) in the name of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Granvelle continued to take an active part in Charles V's affairs and in 1550 he succeeded his father as keeper of the Emperor's seal. His influence continued to grow under King Philip II of Spain and he even negotiated the latter's marriage to Mary Tudor of England. Aside from his political life, Granvelle was a great linguist (he spoke seven languages) and avid patron of the arts: the plethora of known portraits of him, by both Italian and Northern painters, attests to both his popularity and to his influence in artistic matters. In addition to paintings he also amassed a fine collection of antiquarian books and illuminated manuscripts.